Vaughan confident but Flintoff is key

Michael Vaughan is still upbeat about England's chances of success in the Champions Trophy despite seeing them take a backward step at Lord's.

Vaughan believes his one-day side has come on "by leaps and bounds" since mid-summer when they lost four out of five matches against the West Indies and New Zealand.

But yesterday's 23-run defeat by India should have reinforced a few home truths.

Firstly, and most obviously, the old saying about no one being irreplaceable was coined before Andrew Flintoff turned himself into England's all-conquering allrounder.

Secondly, a dodgy few overs in any of their remaining matches this season may be enough to end Vaughan's hopes of mounting a serious challenge for cricket's second most important one-day event after the World Cup.

Flintoff missed the third and final NatWest Challenge meeting with India when his pregnant partner was admitted to hospital.

Even before Vaughan knew England would be without the Lancashire giant at Lord's, he said: "There's no like-for-like replacement for him."

Certainly not Anthony McGrath, anyway. The player chosen to fill Flintoff 's berth was not even given a chance to bowl and then made only a couple of runs.

But it is the effect Flintoff 's absence has on opponents which underlines his huge worth.

"England are a different side without him," said India's captain Sourav Ganguly, whose own team looked vastly more confident at Lord's.

Even then, though, England could have completed a clean sweep following their decisive victories at Trent Bridge and The Oval.

Dismissing India for 204 was a fine effort, especially as a slow turner of a pitch looked right up the visitors' street.

All England had to do thereafter, surely, was make a good start against Ganguly's often wayward new-ball attack before grinding out a win when his spinners entered the fray.

Instead, India all but won the match inside 16 overs, with leftarm pacemen Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra leaving the home side in tatters at 48 for five.

The pair bowled beautifully. But, then again, they are entitled to as internationals and it may only need Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa to do something similar for Sri Lanka next week for England to be out of the Champions Trophy at the group stage.

"We are delighted to have beaten a very good India side in this series. If you look back at the three games we've probably just had 15 bad overs - and that was when they hit us with the new ball at Lord's," Vaughan said.

Few teams can afford five of the top six to fall for single figures, as happened yesterday with Marcus Trescothick, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, McGrath and Paul Collingwood.

But if England had to suffer a startling collapse then yesterday was the time to do it, with a trophy already secured.

The real silver lining, though, came courtesy of Vaughan, who ended a trot of seven one-day failures by making 74 and, in partnership with Ashley Giles, almost turned around the match.

England's skipper was pleased to make some runs, happy with the fightback, delighted by the team's performance over three matches and hopeful, no doubt, of finishing the season with a Flintoff-inspired flourish.